Geri Pell wants employees at her firm to get the most out of work and out of their personal lives, and to stay for a long, long time. “Because we are a planning firm that helps clients reach their goals, we believe it’s important for employees to reach their goals, so we have everyone here go through a process of identifying what they want for themselves professionally and personally, and then we help them hit their goals,” she said.

To help attract the best people and get them to stay, the firm offers some unusual benefits. Employees with children get off on their child’s first day of school, from kindergarten to college. Each employee also gets a gift card on their work anniversary that increases by $100 every year. Starting in an employee’s 10th year, the company pays for a car lease.

Maintaining the culture during the pandemic, which Pell describes as being like a “year-long snow day — except you keep working,” has meant tying together the firm’s all-virtual workforce through daily all-firm meetings and twice-daily meetings for the operations team. “We’ve also brought in experts on stress to help us help our employees,” Pell said. — Evan Cooper